Female swimmer makes history

On Saturday, Kalispell triathlete Emily von Jentzen went down in history as the first woman to swim the length of Flathead Lake — and then some.

The 33 miles she estimates covering took von Jentzen well beyond the 27.3-mile length she set out to conquer.

“No one did it as far as I did. That feels awesome, it really does,” she said.

Von Jentzen swam under USA Open Water rules that stipulate a swimmer can’t touch any support boat, flotation device or other swimmers.

Von Jentzen’s mother, who was waiting for her daughter Saturday in Polson, said, “If she says she’s going to do something, she’ll do it.”

In conquering Flathead Lake, von Jentzen joins elite company.

Kalispell resident Paul Stelter was the first man to swim the length of the lake.

He completed it in 14 hours in 1988. In 2005, Ron Stevens, another Kalispell resident and master swimmer, did it in 12 hours, 25 minutes.

Both men swam from Polson to Bigfork, but von Jentzen chose a slightly longer route, starting in Somers Bay and finishing at Boettcher Park near the Polson golf course.

“It surprised me that no woman had done this [swum the length of the lake],” she said. “I take that as a great source of pride.”

“As a woman, you should try and do things like that. You should try and do what the boys do,” she added.

Von Jentzen is no stranger to distance swimming and endurance events.

Two years ago she completed a 24-hour triathlon in Aurora, Colo., stopping for just two 15-minute breaks, one to wolf down a Dairy Queen Blizzard and another to tend to blisters on her feet.

Motivated to be a swimmer at age 9 in Lake Stevens, Wash., “because it was the only sport I could beat my sister at,” von Jentzen swam her way through high school with top honors in swimming and swam at regional competitions in California and Hawaii for the Pacific Northwest Swim Team.

She earned a swimming scholarship to Central Washington University, where she remembers a tough swim coach putting the team through a 12-hour practice, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., swimming some 36,000 yards with 10-minute breaks on the hour.

At the height of her swimming career, the university cut its swim team, so she and her teammates started their own Central Washington Swim Team to allow them to keep competing.

About the same time, von Jentzen began competing in triathlons — swimming, bicycling and running in a single competition.

When she started law school in Missoula in 2006, she joined the UM Triathlon Team. Von Jentzen competed through 2008 and served as president and swim coach of the team during the 2007-08 school year.

Then she delved into coaching adult swimming at the Missoula YMCA. She’s a certified coach for both the USA Triathlon and USA Swimming programs.

Only once has she let competing against “the boys” be an excuse for not winning. She was 9 or 10 years old and found herself in a heat with mixed genders.

“My dad asked me if I won my heat,” von Jentzen recalled. “I said I didn’t win because I was swimming with all boys. ... My dad said it didn’t matter if I was racing the toughest girl or the toughest boy.”

Von Jentzen was mid-race Saturday when she discovered she already is a role model for other girls. A friend was out on a boat with some family members, and the friend’s niece told von Jentzen she wanted to swim Flathead Lake, too.

Having a positive role model to imitate “is super important for girls,” von Jentzen said. “Especially for middle school or high school girls, so [they aren’t imitating] Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan.

“If it’s me [they’re imitating], that’s awesome. If it’s not, that’s awesome, too.”